The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A semiconductor package is a casing—e.g., composed of metal, plastic, glass, ceramic, or other material—containing one or more semiconductor devices. A semiconductor package generally provides protection against impact and corrosion, and supports contact pins or leads which are used to connect a semiconductor device within the semiconductor package to a circuit external to the semiconductor package. A semiconductor package typically includes a number of components—for example, a substrate composed of several layers, metal traces, and ball pads. Multiple patterning steps are typically required to respectively form the several layers of a substrate, as well as to define the metal traces and ball pads used in packaging a semiconductor device. Minimizing the amount of patterning steps can reduce the cost of manufacturing semiconductor devices.